hellbent hikers homers home

Roll into Tacna at 6 pm and as soon as we step off the bus a guy yells.. Arica!  Of course that got our attention as thats the town we needed to get to.  Asking    "quanto costa?" he replies 60 soles,  too much I reply.50 he says, No I say and the two of us walk toward the terminal.....okay 40 he says and follows us relentlessly . Finally I get my Lonely Planet out and find that it should only cost 30 soles.  Then out of nowhere another guy yells ....Arica?   come with me.  We follow like lost little sheep.  He takes us to this beat up old Ford with the drive shaft about to fall off.  He puts our bags in the trunk as says 20 soles to Arica.  Me and Angie look in the back seat and there crowded on top of one another are two ladies with two children all apparently going to the same town.   Theres a whole industry of black market service providers out there just trin to make a living and what we did is certainly contrary to what  the travel books advise but our faith in the kindness of humans seems to overpower any of the negative we read about.....so far it hasn't let us down!  Another hair raising ,high speed trip in an old car with a guy named Jorge behind the wheel......priceless.  He gets all of us through the border with  our paper work in order and into Arica with not so much as a scratch on us! The bonus was that we got to meet some great people along the way. WE all exchanged email addresses and they accepted the informative booklets about our town back in Canada. What an exciting way to enter another country.....sure beats a boring bus ride!!!!!!!